Abstract: The influence of an ellipsoid on the angular order of two-dimensional classical clusters is investigated through Brownian dynamics simulations. We found the following: (1) The presence of an ellipsoid does not influence the start of the angular melting, but reduces the rate at which the inner rings can rotate with respect to each other. (2) Even a small eccentricity of the ellipsoid leads to a stabilization of the angular order of the system. (3) Depending on the position of the ellipsoid in the cluster, a reentrant behavior in the angular order is observed before full radial melting of the cluster sets in. (4) The ellipsoid can lead to a two-step angular melting process: First, the rotation of the inner rings with respect to each other is hindered by the ellipsoid, but on further increasing the kinetic energy of the system, the ellipsoid just starts to behave as a spherical particle with different mobility. The effect of an ellipsoid on the molten system does not depend crucially on the interparticle interaction, but a softer parabolic confinement reduces the angular stabilization.

Abstract: We analyze the combined effect of three ingredients of an aggregation model-surface tension, particle flow and particle source-representing typical characteristics of many aggregation growth processes in nature. Through extensive numerical experiments and for different underlying lattice structures we demonstrate that the location of incoming particles and their preferential direction of flow can significantly affect the resulting general shape of the aggregate, while the surface tension controls the surface roughness. Combining all three ingredients increases the aggregate shape plasticity, yielding a wider spectrum of shapes as compared to earlier works that analyzed these ingredients separately. Our results indicate that the considered combination of effects is fundamental for modeling the polymorphic growth of a wide variety of structures in confined geometries and/or in the presence of external fields, such as rocks, crystals, corals, and biominerals.

Abstract: The thermal properties of a two-dimensional classical cluster of negatively charged particles bound by a punctual positive charge are presented. The melting phenomenon is analyzed and the features which characterize such a solid-liquid transition are highlighted. We found that the presence of metastable states strongly modifies the melting scenario, and that the melting temperature of the system is determined by the height of the saddle point energy separating the ground state and the metastable state. Due to the particular type of confinement potential considered in this paper, we also found that, at sufficiently large temperature, the cluster can become thermally ionized.

Abstract: We report on a molecular dynamics study of small classical two-dimensional clusters with ringlike configurations. We focus on the particles motion at low temperatures before the radial and angular melting sets in. It is shown that in magic number configurations a local radial melting of subshells occur, which is related to the intershell rotation.

Abstract: Janus particles present an important class of building blocks for directional assembly. These are compartmentalized colloids with two different hemispheres. Here, we consider a two-dimensional model of Janus disks consisting of a hydrophobic semicircle and an electro-negatively charged one. Placed in a solution, the hydrophobic sides will attract each other while the charged sides will give rise to a repulsive force. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the morphology of these particles when confined in a channel-like environment using a one dimensional harmonic confinement potential. The interest to this system is first of all due to the fact that it could serve as a simple model for membrane formation. Indeed, the recently synthesized new class of artificial amphiphiles, known as Janus dendrimers, were shown to self-assemble in bilayer structures mimicking biological membranes. In turn, Janus particles that combine the amphiphilicity and colloidal rigidity serve as a good model for Janus dendrimers. A variety of ordered membrane-like morphologies are found consisting of single and multiple chain configurations with different orientations of the particles with respect to each other that we summarize in a phase diagram.

Abstract: We report on the dynamical properties of interacting colloids confined to one dimension and subjected to external periodic energy landscapes. We particularly focus on the influence of hydrodynamic interactions on the mean-square displacement. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we study colloidal systems with two types of repulsive interparticle interactions, namely, Yukawa and superparamagnetic potentials. We find that in the homogeneous case, hydrodynamic interactions lead to an enhancement of the particle mobility and the mean-square displacement at long times scales as t(alpha), with alpha = 1/2 + epsilon and epsilon being a small correction. This correction, however, becomes much more important in the presence of an external field, which breaks the homogeneity of the particle distribution along the line and, therefore, promotes a richer dynamical scenario due to the hydrodynamical coupling among particles. We provide here the complete dynamical scenario in terms of the external potential parameters: amplitude and commensurability.

Abstract: We studied the structural and spectral properties of a classical system consisting of a finite number of particles, moving in two dimensions, and interacting through a repulsive logarithmic potential and held together by an anisotropic harmonic potential. Increasing the anisotropy of the confinement potential can drive the system from a two-dimensional (2D) to a one-dimensional (1D) configuration. This change occurs through a sequence of structural transitions of first and second order which are reflected in the normal mode frequencies. Our results of the ground state configurations are compared with recent experiments and we obtained a satisfactory agreement. The transition from the 1D line structure to the 2D structure occurs through a zigzag transition which is of second order. We found analytical expressions for the eigenfrequencies before the zigzag transition, which allowed us to obtain an analytical expression for the anisotropy parameter at which the zigzag transition occurs as a function of the number of particles in the system.

Abstract: We study the mixing of two different kinds of particles, having different charge and/or mass, interacting through a pure Coulomb potential, and confined in a parabolic trap. The structure of the cluster and its normal mode spectrum are analyzed as a function of the ratio of the charges (mass ratio) of the two types of particles. We show that particles are not always arranged in a shell structure. Mixing of the particles goes hand in hand with a large number of metastable states. The normal modes of the system are obtained, and we find that some of the special modes can be tuned by varying the ratio between the charges (masses) of the two species. The degree of mixing of the two type of particles is summarized in a phase diagram, and an order parameter that describes quantitatively the mixing between particles is defined.

Abstract: Strong terahertz (1THz=1012Hz) radiation can be generated by the electron oscillation in fs-laser-induced wake fields. The interaction of a fs-laser pulse with a low-density plasma layer is studied in detail using numerical simulations. The spatial distribution and temporal evolution of terahertz electron current developed in a low-density plasma layer are presented, which enables us to calculate the intensity distribution of THz radiation. It is shown that laser and plasma parameters, such as laser intensity, pulse width, and background plasma density, are of key importance to the process. The optimum condition for wake-field excitation and terahertz emission is discussed upon the simulation results. Radiation peaked at 6.4 THz, with 900 fs duration and 9% bandwidth, can be generated in a plasma of density 5×1017cm−3. It turns out that the maximum radiation intensity scales as n03a04 when wake field is resonantly excited, where n0 and a0 are, respectively, the plasma density and the normalized field amplitude of the laser pulse.

Abstract: The diffusion of a system of ferromagnetic dipoles confined in a quasi-one-dimensional parabolic trap is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations. We show that the dynamics of the system is tunable by an in-plane external homogeneous magnetic field. For a strong applied magnetic field, we find that the mobility of the system, the exponent of diffusion, and the crossover time among different diffusion regimes can be tuned by the orientation of the magnetic field. For weak magnetic fields, the exponent of diffusion in the subdiffusive regime is independent of the orientation of the external field. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.012307

Abstract: Janus particles present an important class of building blocks for directional assembly. These are compartmentalized colloids with two different hemispheres. In this work we consider a three-dimensional model of Janus spheres that contain one hydrophobic and one charged hemisphere. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the morphology of these particles when confined in a channel-like environment. The interplay between the attractive and repulsive forces on each particle gives rise to a rich phase space where the relative orientation of each particle plays a dominant role in the formation of large-scale clusters. The interest in this system is primarily due to the fact that it could give a better understanding of the mechanisms of the formation of polar membranes. A variety of ordered membranelike morphologies is found consisting of single and multiple connected chain configurations. The helicity of these chains can be chosen by simply changing the salt concentration of the solution. Special attention is given to the formation of Bernal spirals. These helices are composed of regular tetrahedra and are known to exhibit nontrivial translational and rotational symmetry.